SINGAPORE – A pilot telehealth program by Changi General Hospital and Royal Philips showed a 67% reduction in length of hospital stay for heart failure patients.

The year-long Heart Failure Telehealth program also showed a 42% reduction in costs and enhanced quality.

“Telehealth is a sustainable and scalable model that bridges the care delivery gap,” said Diederik Zeven, general manager, health systems, Philips ASEAN Pacific, in a statement. “At the same time, this care model also shows positive impact in treatment compliance, which results in better quality of life for patients.”

The heart failure patients enrolled in the telehealth program gained increased knowledge of their conditions and improved self-care abilities, resulting in a greater confidence in managing their heart conditions, said Dr. Sheldon Lee, program director and consultant at Changi General Hospital, in a statement.

The results of the pilot have contributed to the design and development of a national telehealth vital signs monitoring project initiated by the Singapore Ministry of Health. Following the pilot, CGH will be participating in this national VSM project to enable CGH patients to receive care after discharge from hospitals, as they return to their homes and the community.

A total of 150 heart failure patients from CGH were enrolled in the telehealth program and received telemonitoring support for one year. Their results were compared against a group that received support only via phone calls.

“It is important for patients with chronic conditions to feel that they are empowered and in control of their own health as it increases their capacity to take action,” said Lee. “We are delighted to see these encouraging results in the pilot and will continue to look into enhancing the program further so as to provide sustainable benefits for our patients in the long run.”

DARMSTADT, Germany and NEW YORK – Digital therapeutics company Blue Mesa Health is partnering with Merck KGaA to pilot diabetes prevention programs in territories outside of the United States. “We have seen such great success helping people across America prevent or significantly delay the onset of Type 2 diabetes,” said Curtis Duggan, CEO of Blue Mesa Health, in a statement. “We are looking forward to helping more people outside of the United States manage their risk for Type 2 diabetes.” Blue Mesa Health developed two chronic disease prevention programs based on the Center for Disease Control’s Diabetes Prevention Program called Transform, a year-long lifestyle change program that integrates remote health coaching from dieticians, a peer support group and the integration of smartphone app technology with connected bathroom scales and activity trackers. “At Merck we are continuously striving to improve the lives of patients with diabetes, and we believe expanding our current pharmacological portfolio into an integrated disease management offering will have a tremendous impact on treatment outcomes,” said Daniel Ruggiero, head of diabetes strategy at Merck KGaA, in a statement.

LOS ANGELES – Patients could benefit if they are encouraged to co-produce medical notes, rather than just read them, according to a study recently published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Doctors at University of California Los Angeles Health and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center found that the practice, called “OurNotes,” enabled patients to contribute to their medical records with their doctors, adding material such as symptoms or medical issues they experienced since their last visit, along with goals for upcoming visits.

“If executed thoughtfully, OurNotes has the potential to reduce documentation demands on clinicians, while having both the patient and clinician focusing on what’s most important to the patient,” said Dr. John Mafi, lead author of the research, in a statement.

A pilot of the OurNotes program will start next year with patients managing chronic illnesses at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, University of Washington, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and University of Colorado, Mafi said.

To prepare for the pilots, researchers conducted in-depth telephone interviews with 29 health care experts. Participants overall believed that OurNotes could promote patient engagement, improve patient-centered care and patient-provider collaboration, and possibly take some of the documentation burden off providers. The majority of participants believed the most promising approach for OurNotes is to contact patients before an upcoming visit and ask them to review previous notes, provide an interval history and list what they hope to address at the visit.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Digital therapeutics company Revon Systems is partnering with Humana on a pilot for a select population of Medicare Advantage members diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. “We are pleased to work with Humana on their Bold Goal to reduce chronic disease by 20% by 2020,” said Ted Smith, CEO of Revon Systems, in a statement. “We know that COPD can be a challenge for patients to manage, and we hope that Revon’s Smart Symptom Tracker technology will result in more Healthy Days for the participating members.” The pilot will use Revon’s Smart Symptom Tracker mobile app and the free Breathe COPD Resource Kit, which contains a pulse oximeter and thermometer. The app features a self-triage function intended to guide members toward the right level of care. The program seeks to evaluate the impact of digital therapies on clinical and business outcomes.

JERUSALEM and NEW YORK – TEVA Pharmaceutical Industries and Mount Sinai Health System are partnering to create scalable solutions to improve care for people with multiple chronic conditions.

“While the personal challenges may differ, the mental, social and financial strain of multiple chronic conditions on patients and their families is universal,” said Iris Beck Codner, group executive vice president of Teva Pharmaceuticals, in a statement. “We hope this effort will shed light on the unique pressures weighing on patients and the potential for centering treatment on the patient versus individual conditions to help them live better and longer lives.”

The partnership will create a regional pilot program that will gain new data and insights into interventions for people with multiple chronic conditions. Potential areas for exploration in the partnership include: technology-based solutions like telemedicine, remote monitoring and cognitive computing; cross condition management; and medication regimen simplification, including digital compliance technology.

BOSTON – A pilot to evaluate home-based care in place of hospital admissions was so successful that a second, larger pilot is about to launch.

The Partners HealthCare BWH Home Hospital pilots are a collaboration between PhysIQ, a data analytics provider; VitalConnect, maker of wearable biosensor technology; and Partners HealthCare Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“We completed our first pilot late last year with excellent results,” said Dr. David Levine, a physician at BWH, who is leading the pilots.

The pilots are focused on evaluating how technology and home-based care delivery can be leveraged to treat patients who would otherwise be admitted to the hospital.

While Levine was reluctant to share actual data, he said his team has found excellent results for quality, safety, patient activity and patient experience in those who participate in a home hospital program compared to those who do not.

“Our home hospital work is proving to be a big win for patients, payers and providers,” said Levine, who explained that more concrete data will be available in a report to be published soon.

The first pilot was a randomized controlled trial that included patients diagnosed at the BWH Emergency Department with exacerbation of heart failure, pneumonia, COPD, cellulitis or complicated urinary tract infection. The 60 patients selected for the pilot were provided with a state-of-the-art home monitoring solution, including the Vital Connect VitalPatch biosensor that continuously streamed patient vital signs. Those vitals were then analyzed by, and viewable through, the physIQ Personalized Physiology Analytics platform.

The second pilot will scale up to 500 patients in the next couple of months. Half of the patients will receive traditional in-hospital treatment and the other half will receive treatment at home.

“We are in a very exciting era of medicine where clinical-grade biosensors and analytics are capable of delivering continuous physiological insight that was traditionally only available in the hospital environment,” Levine said.

In fact, Levine said this kind of collaboration will soon become a necessary and ubiquitous model of health care delivery.

“We foresee that home hospital-like models will be the norm in the coming years,” he said.

VANCOUVER – Reliq Health Technologies has begun enrolling patients in the pilot of its remote patient monitoring and secure communication solution with The Feldman Institute in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The pilot will evaluate the use of Reliq Health’s technology with patients who have been discharged home after interventional pain management surgery, or have returned to their homes between treatments at the Institute. “Our virtual care solution allows patients to receive high quality follow-up care from the comfort of their own homes,” said Dr. Lisa Crossley, CEO of Reliq Health, in a press release. Patients can communicate with their care team at The Feldman Institute using Reliq’s cloud-based secure messaging, videoconferencing and virtual visits.